China’s Spaceplane Lands in Gobi Desert, Ending Secretive 268-Day Mission

The Chinese spaceplane completed its 3rd flight, spending 268 days successful orbit connected a secretive ngo apt focused connected processing the experimental vehicle. During its clip successful orbit, the reusable spaceplane released respective objects and raised its altitude to 372 miles (600 kilometers) supra Earth, successful what was an eventful mission.

China’s spaceplane, named Shenlong, touched down precocious Thursday (Friday successful Bejing) astatine the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center successful the Gobi Desert, according to section media reports. The spacecraft passed implicit its designated landing site, a dried-up lakebed successful the southeastern information of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region known arsenic Lop Nur, astir 9:10 p.m. ET, astrophysicist and abstraction tracker Jonathan McDowell wrote connected X.

The 268-day mission, the 3rd for Shenlong, was a trial of the spacecraft’s reusable exertion and for conducting space-based subject experiments, according to Chinese authorities quality bureau Xinhua

China has not released immoderate accusation astir its reusable spacecraft, including its size oregon payload capacity. Earlier successful August, however, we got a rare glimpse of the spaceplane successful orbit done the lens of an astrophotographer successful Austria. The images, though alternatively fuzzy, did uncover immoderate never-before-seen details, including what whitethorn beryllium star panels stuck to the tail-end of the spacecraft. The spaceplane besides appeared to beryllium astir 30 feet (10 meters) successful length.

The reusable spacecraft launched connected December 14, 2023 connected committee a Long March 2F bearer rocket. Shortly aft launch, China’s Shenlong deployed six enigma objects into orbit, which appeared to beryllium emitting assorted signals. Later successful May, the spaceplane released an unidentifiable object, which was thought to bespeak the extremity of its mission.

The spaceplane’s inaugural formation took spot successful 2021, erstwhile it stayed successful orbit for lone 2 days earlier landing backmost connected Earth. For its 2nd clip successful orbit, the spaceplane launched successful August 2022 and spent 276 days successful Earth’s orbit. China’s spaceplane is simply a merchandise of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, a state-owned shaper that makes some civilian and subject abstraction motorboat vehicles.

Shenlong has a U.S. counterpart, the Boeing X-37 that is being developed by the Space Force. The X-37 launched successful December 2023 for its seventh mission, which is yet to travel to an end. The U.S. spaceplane holds the grounds for the longest-duration mission, spending 908 days successful abstraction connected its sixth flight. Marco Langbroek, an astrodynamics lecturer astatine Delft Technical University successful the Netherlands, precocious captured images of the X-37 spaceplane successful orbit, which hadn’t been seen since March.

China didn’t bushed its erstwhile grounds of clip spent successful orbit, but possibly the absorption is connected the spaceplane’s reusability to summation the nation’s entree to orbit arsenic its abstraction ambition continues to grow. In that case, the existent trial volition beryllium the timing of the spaceplane’s adjacent launch.

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